Baseline and Post-intervention Data for Community-based Intervention to Improve Psychosocial Well-being in Left Behind Children in Two Chinese Provinces, 2015-2018

Hesketh, Therese and Li, Lu and Zhou, Xudong and Lu, Jingjing (2021). Baseline and Post-intervention Data for Community-based Intervention to Improve Psychosocial Well-being in Left Behind Children in Two Chinese Provinces, 2015-2018. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854819

In China an estimated 58 million children, or 28% of all rural children, have been left behind in rural areas by parents migrating to cities to work. It is already established that prolonged separation disrupts parent-child relationships and leads to increased psychosocial difficulties, behavioural problems and poorer educational attainment.
In collaboration with the Chinese Women’s Federation and local government, we developed a network of forty Children's Centres in five counties in two provinces, Zhejiang and Guizhou, representing rich and poor Chinese provinces. The counties are all known migrant-sending areas of the two provinces, with large numbers of children left behind. Over the period April 2016 to September 2018 centres were organised in 20 villages in both provinces by local volunteers and local college students. They provided age-appropriate activities, including educational support, sport activities, arts and crafts. and help with communication with parents. While originally planned to focus on left behind children, all children aged 5 to 16 were welcomed at the Centres. Our model, allowing local communities to adapt the programme theory to specific local community contexts, is highly innovative in the Chinese setting.
Well-being surveys of children were conducted at baseline and post-intervention, allowing for comparison of children who attended the Centres and those who did not.
Results showed that the Centres established a community care platform and support network, which benefited the emotional and behavioural well-being of both children left behind (by one or both parents), and those living with both parents. Children who regularly attended the centres for at least one year (n=719) showed significant improvements in emotional well-being, social support, less risk behaviour, compared with non-attending children. Baseline and post-intervention follow-up of the children also showed that psychosocial wellbeing was negatively impacted by economic hardship, and in situations where the main caregiver is an elderly grandparent.
The social impact of Centres was considerable, with over half explicitly recognised as a community asset, a place of safety for children, and a focal point in the village. The Centres demonstrate an inexpensive, feasible and evidence-based model to address the effects of migration on children in rural communities. They continue to the present in villages in two counties with local government support.

Data description (abstract)

The data collection provides baseline and post-intervention data for a community-based intervention aiming to improve psychosocial outcomes in rural children.
The collection comprises the following:
1) Baseline data for children aged 8 to 15 in 20 villages in 3 counties in Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, and in 20 villages in 2 counties in Guizhou Province in south-western China. Questionnaires were distributed by researchers in the classroom setting in villages and townships. Data were collected in early 2015 in Zhejiang and late 2015 in Guizhou. Data include left behind children (LBC, living with neither parent), Single Children (SC, children living with one parent) and Rural Children (RC, children living with both parents). Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional and behavioural variables. The psychosocial and emotional variables draw on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. There are data for 3796 children in total: 1560(41%) in Zhejiang and 2236 (59%) in Guizhou; 1553 (41%) living with neither parent, 868 (23%) SC living with one parent, and 1378 (36%) living with both parents.
2) Post-intervention data for children in Zhejiang (n=335) who had attended the centres at least 30% of the time over a one year period and controls (n=100) matched by village. Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional and behavioural variables. Data collection took place in early 2017.
3) Post-intervention data for children in Guizhou (n=474) who had attended the centres at least 30% of the time over a one year period. and controls (n=100) matched by village. Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional and behavioural variables. Data collection took place in 2018.
4) Post-intervention interview recordings with children who attended the centres (in Chinese).
5) Interviews with parents of attending children (in Chinese).

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Hesketh Therese	University College London	https://0000-0002-7564-9221
Li Lu	Zhejiang University
Zhou Xudong	Zhejiang University
Lu Jingjing	Zhejiang University

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Zhou Xudong	Zhejiang University

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council, Zhejiang University

Grant reference:

ES/L003619/1

Topic classification:

Society and culture
Psychology

Keywords:

CHILDREN, INTERVIEWS (DATA COLLECTION), SURVEYS, PSYCHOSOCIOLOGY, ECONOMY, HOUSEHOLD MIGRATION

Project title:

Community-based intervention to improve the well-being of left behind children in China

Grant holders:

Therese Hesketh, Li Lu, Leah Li, Pedro Carneiro

Project dates:

From	To
1 April 2014	31 December 2018

Date published:

20 May 2021 18:21

Last modified:

20 May 2021 18:21

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
April 2015	September 2018

Geographical area:

Three counties in Zhejiang province: Jiande, Jiangshan and Kaihua AND two counties in Guizhou province: Guiding and Longli

Country:

People's Republic of China

Data collection method:

1) Baseline questionnaire survey. This was conducted among children aged aged 8 to 15 inhabiting 20 villages in 3 counties in Zhejiang, and 20 villages in 2 counties in Guizhou. Data collection took place from May 2015 in Zhejiang and from November 2015 in Guizhou. All counties were selected for being known migrant-sending areas of the two provinces, with large numbers of left behind children (LBC living with neither parent), and SC (children living with one parent). Questionnaires, previously piloted in both provinces across the target age range, were administered among all consenting children inhabiting the 40 villages in the school setting. School attendance across all five counties to age 16 is around 98%, so schools provide a highly appropriate sampling frame. Permission was obtained from headteachers. Researchers explained the purpose of the questionnaire, what sorts of questions would be asked, and gave a number of examples before asking for consent. Signed consent forms were attached to the front of the questionnaire. The last four questions about parental migration were administered orally by researchers on an individual basis to maximise accuracy. Researchers also checked levels of completion of the questionnaires and encouraged children to fill any gaps. Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional, educational and behavioural variables, drawing considerably on the Chinese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.

2) Post-intervention data for children in Zhejiang (n=435). This was collected in 2017 and used an abbreviated version of the baseline questionnaire. Data comprises 335 children, who had attended the Children's Centres at least 30% of the time, and 100 controls of children from the same villages who had never attended the Centres. Questionnaires were administered following consent among children in the 8 to 15 age range, (although children outside this age range did attend the Children's Centres. Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional and behavioural variables. Data were collected at the Children's Centres and in the villages for the controls.

3) Post-intervention data for children in Guizhou (n=484) This was collected in 2018. Data comprises 384 children who had attended the Children's Centres at least 30% of the time, and 100 controls of children from the same villages who never attended. Administration of the questionnaires was carried-out in the same way as for Zhejiang above. Data includes sociodemographic, economic, psychosocial, emotional and behavioural variables.

4) Post-intervention interviews were recorded with children who attended the centres. These were conducted at the Children's Centres with specific consent for recording provided. The main focus was on children's opinions of the clubs, what they liked didn't like, enjoyment, whether they looked forward to them, and ideas for improvement.

5) Post-intervention interviews with parents and carers of attending children with specific consent for recording provided. The focus was on informants' views of the Centres and ideas for improvement.

Observation unit:

Individual

Kind of data:

Numeric, Audio

Type of data:

Experimental data , Other surveys, Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English, Chinese

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Quantitative data presented in Excel files for easy sharing among team members, who could then upload to preferred statistical package. Data were collected, entered and cleaned by different teams for the two provinces. During the cleaning process a number of variables were removed because of a high number of missing or implausible values. Baseline data for the two provinces were combined. There are no barriers to re-use by other researchers. However, the delay in getting this data uploaded (relating to a number of local barriers) means that the baseline data is now around five years old. All data has been anonymised. Data were collected and entered by different local teams in Zhejiang and Guizhou respectively under the supervision of the Chinese PI. A few questions which seemed to have been misunderstood or where implausible results emerged were removed after the baseline survey results were entered. Otherwise the data is quite complete because the children understood that they should try to answer every question. Completion rates of this level are not unusual in Chinese children. Missing values are shown as empty cells. We regard the data as of reasonable quality, though errors occurring at data entry are certainly possible. The interview recordings were carried-out in the children's centres, in a separate room or a quiet corner, but background noise of the children's activities is clear on some recordings. Consent has been sought for the data to be shared. Any researchers with an interest in the data should contact t.hesketh@ucl.ac.uk. An understanding of the local setting would be highly desirable to make use of the data.

Rights owners: